A childhood spent as a javelin thrower influenced Marchant de Lange's approach to bowling. He stands at 2.01m and can extract good bounce from an unusually short run-up while reaching speeds in the upper 140kphs.

De Lange hails from Tzaneen in the northern-most Limpopo province and was discovered at a local academy by scouts from Northern Provincial Union. He moved to Centurion and made his first-class debut for Easterns in the 2010-11 season. He attended the national academy before being contracted by Titans.
After 13 first-class matches, he was called up to the South Africa A squad to face the touring Australians in November 2011, and he impressed with five wickets in Potchefstroom. This led to his inclusion in the Test squad, and a debut against Sri Lanka in Durban on Boxing Day 2011, when he replaced an injured Vernon Philander. De Lange was only 21 years old at the time.

He had the enthusiasm of youth and became the second-most successful South African on debut with 7 for 81 in the first innings. He was later surpassed by Kyle Abbott, in more ways than one. De Lange could not maintain a regular Test place and only played one more game, in March 2012, when South Africa toured New Zealand.

De Lange had more success in limited-overs cricket and proved to be a handy death bowler. He defended seven runs off the final over in the third T20 against New Zealand in 2012 to ensure South Africa sealed the series. That year, de Lange was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL but only played three games. Shortly after the tournament, he suffered a stress fracture that impacted his ability to play in the 2012-13 season.

His rehabilitation included remodeling his action to ensure more stability at the crease but had to wait until mid-2014 to show it at international level again. A solitary game on the limited-overs visit to Zimbabwe in August 2014 was followed by a one-off appearance on the 2015 World Cup recce trip to Australia and a sprinkling of matches against West Indies at home. De Lange lost ground to some of the younger bowlers, and missed out on the 2015 World Cup and the Bangladesh series that followed.

He found his way back through the Caribbean Premier League, where he took 12 wickets in 10 matches for Guyana Amazon Warriors and showed the kind of form and fitness that had propelled him into the international spotlight in 2011.

De Lange has been part of the Mumbai Indians squad since 2014, but has only played two matches for them in two seasons.Firdose Moonda

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